Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

From an email I received last night, before the sad news was confirmed.

'I remember when I was a kid, I saw an obituary for a yesteryear star I had never heard of, and I thought about Michael Jackson and I wondered if when I was an adult, when Michael Jackson died, if it would make the newspapers, if I would find out about it, how it would be covered in the papers, if everyone would remember who he was, or if it would be like the star whose obit I had just read ... Now I am sitting here, after a long day, and all the news is about this bizarre, sad icon of a man/boy reportedly being dead. If he is dead, it feels a bit like an incorrect ending to a story. I guess he has seemed that way for a long time actually. ... I cant imagine how people, like our parents, who saw him when he was a kid, must feel.'

I think everyone will remember who he is, don't you? And perhaps in death he will receive the sympathy and consideration denied to him in life.

What's an Adequate Punishment?

'Nurses at the Guru Govind Singh Hospital stuck a label that read 'HIV Serum positive' on the forehead of an HIV positive women.'

Just before the incident the woman had been told she was HIV Positive and had undergone an abortion.

'The nurses pasted the label on her forehead and took her around the hospital campus. It was mid-way through the parade that volunteers of 'Jamnagar District Network of People Living With HIV' noticed her. They immediately took up the matter with hospital superintendent Dr Arun Vyas. Expressing shock over the incident, Health Minister Jay Narayan Vyas told TOI that he had instituted an inquiry and asked two doctors and a nurse to proceed on leave till completion of the inquiry. The NGO took the victim out of the hospital and she is at present with her husband, who is also HIV positive. “She is traumatised and told us she does not want to live any more now that everyone knows the truth,” said the NGO's head Preeti Chavda.'

Crisis Reponse Grade: F

Actor Shiney Ahuja has been detained for allegedly raping his maid, who may or may not be underage, and may have worked for him and his wife for a month or for a year, depending on which newspaper you've wasted your money buying.

Director Mahesh Bhatt, who has inside information on everything from Shiney's life to Section 377 to global warming to 26/11, says: 'Shiney told me it was consensual.'

Also offering support are his parents, who have fled their home for that of a relative, and Shiney's former college principal, who seemed instinctively to know that 'rape is just the maid's way of settling a score.'

Update: Shiney's wife Anupam says, 'Even a woman can rape a man.'

P.S. Follow me on Twitter.

Welcome to Bombay

How I love Bombay's newspaper headlines. If anyone, anywhere in the world read them they'd cross the city, the whole country in fact, off their list forever.

Here are today's gems: 1. "Kandivali residents lynch thief; smash his head open." 2. "Watchmen ties two minors for ten hours for stealing."

3. "City's Cattle to be Shifted Out."

4. "3 Students Robbed, Beaten."

And my favourite "NCP Blogs its own Trumpet."

Bean me Up

Padma Laxmi's new line of jewellery is inspired by 'the most precious spices.'

What might these be you wonder, scratching your head.

Lentils.

Cloves.

Pods. (!)

Seeds.

Get your clove garland for between $600 to $6,600.

Yummy?

Twogger

Because I can do two things at one time (eat mango-key this in; kiss Zoey-key this in), I'm now on Twitter. Please join me at twitter.com/soniafaleiro